The Baptistin - A Kit for Converting 60% Tray-Mounts Into a Taco Bumper Gasket-Mount Keyboard

INTRODUCTION:

This is a kit for converting 60% tray-mount keyboards into a "taco"-bumper gasket-mount keyboard. It will work with (1) standard 60% keyboards, such as the GH60 or DZ60, or (2) other 60% keyboards with five 1u keys in the lower right portion of the keyboard.

The kit consists of (1) the case and (2) gasket wings, which clip onto the plate. The gasket wings are rigid enough to keep the plate anchored to the case, but flexible enough to provide a softer and more delicate typing experience than other mounting methods.

INGREDIENTS

M3 20mm screws x 4 (for upper portion of keyboard)
M3 16mm screws x 4 (for bottom portion of keyboard)
M3 nuts x 8
adhesive poron, to be cut to size (I used the following 2mmT x 125mm x 1M poron: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.67002e8dcgt1rA&id=596691601583&_u=820rh52kbe7d)
a standard 60% tray-mount PCB and plate (e.g., GH60 or DZ60)
internal weight (optional) https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.67002e8dcgt1rA&id=560138068179&_u=820rh52k68c4
case foam (optional)

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

(1) Print out the case. If your build size is sufficient (length >= 296 mm, width >= 132 mm, height >= 27 mm), then you will be able to print out the entire "CASE TOP HALF" and "CASE BOTTOM HALF" at once. For build sizes of <= 150 mm^3, I have subdivided the case into four parts: "case top left," "case top right," "case bottom left," and "case bottom right."

(2) Print out the gasket wings:

For a standard 60%, print out the following wings:
(a) "60 wing - upper left, upper right 2u" x 2
(b) "60 wing - upper center 3u" x 1
(c) "60 wing - bottom left, bottom right 2.5u" x 2

For other 60%s with five 1u keys at the lower right, print out the following wings:
(a) "64 wing - upper left, upper right 2u" x 2
(b) "64 wing - upper center, bottom right 3u" x 2
(c) "64 wing - bottom left 2.5u" x 1

Note that the 3u upper center wing is optional. The other wings will be sufficient to support the plate in the case. (I have not tried omitting any of the corner wings.)

(3) Affix the adhesive poron (or some other gasket material) to the gasket wings, forming a "taco" bumper around the wing. Lengthwise, the bumper should extend beyond the wing by about 0.5 mm on each side. This will prevent the sides of the wing from contacting the case.

(4) Insert switches and keycaps into plate and PCB.

(5) Clip the gasket wings onto the plate (not the PCB).

(6) Once clipped into the plate, align the gasket wings with the corresponding gasket wells on the case; sandwich the wings between the top and bottom halves of the case; and screw the top and bottom halves together. The 20 mm screws are for the upper portion of the case, and the 16 mm screws are for the bottom portion of the case.

If you print out the case in four parts (i.e., "case top left," "case top right," "case bottom left", and "case bottom right"), you might, depending on the tolerances of your printer, consider gluing together only "case bottom left" and "case bottom right." That way, it will be easier to line up the screw holes on the top and bottom halves of the case.

The gasket wells are 4.5 mm high and the gasket wing height (without poron) is 1.5 mm. Thus, if you use poron of 2 mm thickness, the combination of the 1.5 mm gasket wing and 2 mm poron (folded over the wing, so the thickness is doubled) will result in a bumper of about 5.5 mm thickness. This means that the poron will compress about 0.5 mm total in the gasket wells.